48 comments:

More than 680 people in South Korea have been placed in isolation after having contact with those infected with a virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East, health officials said Monday...

South Korea has reported 17 cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since a man tested positive following a trip to Saudi Arabia and became the country's first MERS patient earlier this month. The virus in South Korea has so far been largely limited to medical staff who treated the first patient and who stayed at the same hospital with him, as well as his family members.

South Korean Health Ministry official Kwon Jun-wook told reporters Monday that 682 people who had close contact with the patients, such as their family members and their medical staff, were isolated at their homes or state-run facilities to prevent the spread of the disease...AP....ctvnews.ca1/6/15

Concerns over a dangerous respiratory illness have led South Korean health authorities to isolate more than 680 people who may have been exposed. China and Hong Kong also are taking steps to halt the spread of MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed hundreds of people in that region since its emergence in 2012.

As of Monday, South Korea had reported at least 17 confirmed cases, the largest outbreak outside of the Middle East.

Hong Kong also has quarantined 18 people and isolated 17 more. And China’s Guangdong province, with one confirmed case of MERS, has isolated nearly 80 people.

The MERS virus initially produces flu-like symptoms such as fever and coughing, though these can escalate to pneumonia and kidney failure. Among confirmed cases globally, at least four out of 10 people have died, according to the World Health Organization. There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, which first was reported in Saudi Arabia but later traced to Jordan, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The disease spreads through close contact, the CDC’s website says........http://www.voanews.com/content/mers-outbreak-in-asia-alarms-authorities/2802985.html1/6/15

Tropical Storm Blanca has formed in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico and is expected to strengthen quickly over the next two days.

The second named storm of the season was centred about 540 kilometres south-southwest of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, on Monday. It has maximum sustained winds of 65 kph and is moving northwest at 7 kph.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says no coastal warnings or watches are in effect, but the storm is expected to gain strength and become a hurricane Tuesday. Forecasters call it a slow-moving storm.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Andres weakened a bit Monday morning. It is about 1,350 kilometres southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. It is moving west-northwest at 9 kph with maximum sustained winds of 220 kph. No warnings or watches are in effect.APctvnews.ca1/6/15

A series of earthquakes hit off the Oregon coast in northwest United States from Sunday through Monday, apparently causing no harm to life and property.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the latest quake, measured at magnitude 6.0, struck at 1:12 pm Monday in the Pacific Ocean about 480 kilometers west of Newport, and another temblor at magnitude 5.8 was near the same location shortly before midnight.

In media reports reaching here, Max Rudolph, a geologist at Portland State University, was quoted as saying that the quakes occurred near the boundary between the Juan de Fuca plate and the Pacific plate as part of "a natural ongoing movement between these two tectonic plates."

No tsunamis were triggered and no damage has been reported to local authorities.

The USGS also said there was a magnitude-4.3 quake about 1:40 am Monday, a magnitude-5.5 quake about 3:45 am Monday and 4.4 quake about 7:45 am Monday in the same area.

Besides that they were nearly 10 kilometers deep, Rudolph said he was "not concerned" about these events because they were far off shore.http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/924890.shtml2/5/15

How Europe’s climate policies have led to more trees being cut down in the U.S....

For the sake of a greener Europe, thousands of American trees are falling each month in the forests outside this cotton-country town.

Every morning, logging crews go to work in densely wooded bottomlands along the Roanoke River, clearing out every tree and shrub down to the bare dirt. Each day, dozens of trucks haul freshly cut oaks and poplars to a nearby factory where the wood is converted into small pellets, to be used as fuel in European power plants.

Soaring demand for this woody fuel has led to the construction of more than two dozen pellet factories in the Southeast in the past decade, along with special port facilities in Virginia and Georgia where mountains of pellets are loaded onto Europe-bound freighters. European officials promote the trade as part of the fight against climate change. Burning “biomass” from trees instead of coal, they say, means fewer greenhouse gases in the atmosphere..............washingtonpost.com2/6/15

Dozens of farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta submitted plans Monday to the state saying they intend to plant less thirsty crops and leave some fields unplanted to meet voluntary water conservation targets amid the relentless California drought, officials said...

The farmers -- with the strongest water rights in the state -- devised the plans as part of a deal struck last month that would spare them deeper mandatory cuts by the state in the future.

Under the agreement, they must submit plans for using 25 per cent less water, fallowing 25 per cent of their land, or other strategies to achieve the necessary water savings. Officials hope the deal can become a model for other farmers around the state.........ctvnews.ca2/6/15

Trilateral talks on gas issues at the ministerial level between Russia, the European Union and Ukraine are expected to be held after June 20, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has told reporters.

At the meeting of experts on June 2 in Brussels there was no goal of taking a decision on the date for talks, he said.

"This was not the task of defining a date. They were due to work on the document, and we will define the date with [EU energy commissioner Maros] Sefcovic and [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vladimir] Demchishin," Novak said.

Australian scientists said on Wednesday they have uncovered a "very rare" 2,000-year-old natural sea pearl - the first found on the vast island continent - while excavating a remote coastal Aboriginal site...

Archaeologists were working the site on the north Kimberley coast of Western Australia when they came across the unique gem below the surface, said Kat Szabo of the anassociate professor, at the University of Wollongong.

"Natural pearls are very rare in nature and we certainly - despite many, many (oyster) shell middens being found in Australia - we've never found a natural pearl before," Szabo, who specialises in studying shells at archaeological sites, said. told AFP. A midden is a prehistoric refuse pit. "The location makes it particularly significant because the Kimberley coast of Australia is synonymous with pearling, and has been for the better part of the last century.".......AFP....timesofindia.indiatimes.com4/6/15

The amount of hot ash, smoke and rock spewing from the volcano has ramped up significantly since Sunday, with lava visible at the crater, the Mount Sinabung Observation Station chief Armen Putra said.

Military based in the area told AFP that soldiers and police Wednesday evacuated 2,730 residents from four villages within a danger zone around the south and southeast of the volcano. ...........AFP........http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com4/6/15

A volcano in western Indonesia that has been spewing clouds of searing gas high into the air let out a new powerful burst Wednesday.

Authorities are closely monitoring Mount Sinabung on Sumatra, one of Indonesia's main islands, after placing in at the highest alert level last week.

Hot ash tumbled down Sinabung's slopes up to 2.5 kilometres from its smouldering mouth, government volcanologist Surono said. He urged villagers to stay out of the main danger zone, which stretches 7 kilometres to the southeast of the crater. No injuries were reported......AP........ctvnews.ca10/6/15

OPEC decided to keep its output target at 30 million barrels a day Friday but left it to members to restrain their overproduction, reflecting the cartel's inability to strictly enforce its own limits in attempts to control the world supply of crude.

While the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries accounts for over a third of the world's oil, its power to determine supply and demand has been steadily eroding as outsiders capture large shares of the market. It gave up imposing quotas on individual members four years ago after these were consistently ignored.

That has led to an overhang in recent months of more than 1 million barrels a day of OPEC production beyond the target. But the likelihood of continued overproduction persists......AP......ctvnews.ca5/6/15

Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki told Fukushima Prefecture leaders Friday that the central government plans to nationalize a private facility intended for the disposal of relatively low radioactive waste in the prefecture.

In a meeting with Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori and others, Mochizuki also said the government plans to launch a new subsidy program for revising the local economy.ADVERTISING

The ministry was to utilize the facility, which handles industrial waste, for the final disposal of such radioactive waste under an outsourcing contract, but it accepted the local demand for the nationalization.........http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/06/national/radiated-fukushima-prefecture-soil-disposal-facility-to-be-nationalized/#.VXKvcFIpr2Z

South Korean health officials on Sunday reported 14 more cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, bringing the total in the country's outbreak to 64, and said a fifth person infected with the virus had died.

South Korea's outbreak of the often-deadly MERS virus, first reported May 20, is the largest outside the Middle East, prompting public fear and questions over the government's initial response.

The patient who died was a 75-year-old man who had been in the same Seoul hospital emergency room where a total of 17 people, including two medical staff, are believed to have been infected with MERS, South Korea's health ministry said.

Of the 14 new cases, 10 were at the same Seoul hospital........REUTERS........voanews.com

China's greenhouse gas emissions could start to decline within 10 years, according to a report from the London School of Economics.

This would be five years earlier than expected and would offer a boost towards efforts to protect the climate.

The shift has been partly caused by a massive commitment to renewables. China is the world's top investor in wind and solar power.

It has also been replacing old coal plants with cleaner new stations.'Under-promise and over-deliver'

Many of the changes in power generation have been prompted by the need to tackle chronic air pollution, but China's leaders are also acutely conscious of their country's particular vulnerability to a heating planet.........http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33040965

Leaders at the G7 summit in Germany are meeting for a second and final day Monday with a focus on climate and energy issues, and talks with their counterparts from African nations.

Before the summit opened Sunday, President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held their own talks where the White House said they agreed that how long economic sanctions against Russia remain in place depends on Russia's implementation of a cease-fire agreement in Ukraine.

Chancellor Merkel told German public broadcaster ARD that Moscow should stay out of the G7 "community of values" over its actions in Ukraine. "There is a barrier at the moment and I can not really see how it can be overcome," she said.....voanews.com

The Group of Seven (G7) countries are committed to a goal of limiting the rise in average global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday.

Speaking at the conclusion of a two-day G7 summit, Merkel added that the leading industrialized countries were also committed to raising $100 billion in annual climate financing by 2020 from public and private sources. REUTERS8/6/15

Canada's energy sector will have to transform itself to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the long term, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday.

He was commenting at the end of the G7 leaders' summit which called on its members to put their energy sectors on a low-carbon footing by 2050, a move with serious implications for Canada's greenhouse-gas-emitting oilsands.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel fell short of her goal of pushing her fellow leaders to a broad, iron-clad commitment to a low-carbon economy by 2050. Instead, the G7 agreed to a full-blown no-carbon economy, but not until 2100....ctvnews.ca

Leaders of the world’s major industrial democracies resolved on Monday to wean their energy-hungry economies off carbon fuels, marking a major step in the battle against global warming that raises the chances of a UN climate deal later this year...

The Group of Seven’s energy pledge capped a successful summit for host Angela Merkel, who revived her credentials as a “climate chancellor” and strengthened Germany’s friendship with the United States at the meeting in a Bavarian resort.

Ties between the Cold War allies have been strained in the last couple of years by spying rows but Merkel appeared to put that behind her on welcoming US President Barack Obama, who declared their countries were “inseparable allies.”...france24.com8/6/15

Nepal will witness a weak monsoon that will be delayed by a week this year, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology confirmed on Wednesday...

Though the monsoon generally begins on June 10 and ends on Sept. 23, this year it will be delayed by a week.

"We will have less rainfall this year compared to previous years. But it doesn't mean that there will be no floods or landslides. Risks of disasters are same," Dr Rishi Ram Sharma, director general at Department of Hydrology and Meteorology told Xinhua.

Every year, this one of the world's most disaster-prone countries faces severe losses of human lives and damages of settlements due to multiple natural hazards.

To minimize possible destruction, the department has already installed the automatic water censors indicating the water level, status of normal flow and warning in 27 major rivers........http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/926305.shtml10/6/15

Researchers are launching tests aimed at setting up a huge floating barrier off the Japanese coast, a project that could eventually help remove some of the 5.25 trillion pieces of garbage polluting the world's oceans, officials said Thursday.

If the study is a success, the southern island of Tsushima could be the venue for a pilot scheme that would pluck tons of plastic waste from the sea - all without harming marine life.

The Ocean Cleanup Foundation wants to install a moored platform and floating boom off the island next year if the tests, which begin this month, prove promising.

The system would span 2,000 meters, making it the longest floating structure ever deployed in the ocean, according to the Dutch foundation's website.

Most ocean clean-up efforts involve the use of boats sailing around trying to catch the plastic, thousands of tons of which have been dumped around the world.

That method is both energy-intensive and time-consuming, whereas the Ocean Cleanup Foundation system relies on taking advantage of currents that carry rubbish along - effectively waiting for the garbage to come to it.

Since the system uses booms, not nets, marine life - which is neutrally buoyant -passes harmlessly underneath the barriers, while plastic -which floats - is gathered at the surface.

Workers can then scoop up the collected detritus, with island authorities looking at using the plastic as an alternative energy source............http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/926642.shtml11/6/15

A World Health Organization (WHO) team of experts said on Saturday South Korea's outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is "large and complex" and more cases should be anticipated.

The WHO has conducted a joint review with South Korean officials and experts of the country's response to the MERS outbreak which has infected 138 people and killed 14 of them since the first case was diagnosed on May 20. - Reuterschannelnewsasia.com13/6/15

The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth.

Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November.

It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat.

The comet has since moved nearer to the Sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

An account linked to the probe tweeted the message, "Hello Earth! Can you hear me?"

On its blog, Esa said Philae had contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds on Saturday in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.............http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-3312688514/6/15

Tigers, lions, a hippopotamus and other animals escaped from the zoo in Georgia's capital after heavy flooding destroyed their enclosures, prompting authorities to warn residents in Tbilisi to stay inside Sunday. At least 12 people have been killed in the disaster, including three zoo workers.

An escaped hippo was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun, the zoo said. Some other animals also have been seized, but it remained unclear how many are on the loose. Bears and wolves are also among the animals that fled from their enclosures amid the flooding from heavy rains and high winds.

There were no immediate reports that any of the fatalities were due to animal attacks. The zoo said one of the dead was Guliko Chitadze, a zookeeper who lost an arm in an attack by a tiger last month; the Interfax news agency said her husband also died in the flooding.......AP.......ctvnews.ca14/6/15

The comet lander Philae has awakened from a seven-month hibernation and managed to communicate with Earth for more than a minute, the European Space Agency said Sunday...

The probe became the first spacecraft to land on a comet when it touched down on the icy surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November. After its historic landing Philae managed to conduct experiments and send data to Earth for about 60 hours before its batteries were depleted and it was forced to shut down its systems.

Scientists hoped the probe would wake up again as the comet approaches the sun, allowing its solar panels to charge the on-board battery.

The German Aerospace Center, DLR, which operates Philae, said the probe resumed communication at 10:28 p.m. (2028 GMT; 4:28 p.m. EDT) on Saturday, sending about 300 packages of data to Earth via its mother ship Rosetta, which is orbiting the comet.

Nepal is set to reopen all the heritage sites in the Kathmandu valley to the public, in a bid to attract tourists after April's devastating earthquake...

Among those sites set to open are the historic Durbar squares or "noble courts", which were badly damaged.

Unesco raised some concerns over the safety of reopening the sites. But media reports cite officials as saying the necessary measures are in place.

More than 8,000 people were killed and the destruction was widespread.

Shortly after the quake, Unesco's director-general Irina Bokova described damage to the Kathmandu valley as "extensive and irreversible". It sent a team to assess the damage and is continuing to monitor the situation.

On 11 June Unesco issued a statement asking the public to be extra cautious at the sites, adding that it hoped the decision to reopen them could be re-examined.

Security will be in place, tourists will be given guided tours and signboards will indicate specified routes to cause minimal disturbance to structures, officials are quoted as saying in local media.....BBC

KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) - A small-sized oil tanker went missing off the south-east coast of Malaysia close to Singapore over the weekend in what could be the second hijacking of such a vessel this month, maritime officials said on Monday.

The Orkim Harmony is operated by shipping company Orkim Ship Management.

"Orkim Sdn Bhd regretfully confirms the report issued by Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency that the Company has lost contact with its vessel Orkim Harmony early morning 12 June," the ship's operator said in a statement.straitstimes.com15/6/15

Tropical storm Carlos threatened Mexico's southwest Pacific coast with heavy rains on Sunday, and may become a hurricane again as it barrels toward land, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said....

Bracing for high winds, strong waves and downpours, Acapulco, the biggest city in the southwestern state of Guerrero, closed its port, and school classes were suspended in the state for Monday, local government authorities said.

Shelters for people at risk from the rainfall were opened, and the weather front knocked down trees and fences in parts of the state.

On the other side of the country, a low pressure system in the southern Gulf of Mexico that could become a tropical storm in the next two days was producing some showers.....Reuters......voanews.com

EL KAOS UT

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.